


Together With You

by KaijinKyn



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Comedy, Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hate to Love, Light Angst, M/M, Slice of Life, happyverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 23:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10752411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaijinKyn/pseuds/KaijinKyn
Summary: “Must you make the effort to annoy me every hour of every day?” Shuu asked, voice tinged with exhaustion at the other’s antics rather than irritation. Tohri huffed once he’d gotten things under control, ducking under the doorway with a vague glare at the inanimate object as if it had offended him personally - knowing Tohri, it probably had. “You know, I’m sure you wouldn’t struggle so much with doorways if you took off those heels and wore normal shoes from time to time.”“I’m not the annoying one here! And these heels are Gucci!”“I have absolutely no idea what that means, nor do I care. It looks like you dug those out of the trash.”





	Together With You

“That was a perfect example of how _not_ to do things.” Shuu’s voice was flat as he spoke to the children in the classroom, giving Tohri a long, blank look as the class laughed, Tohri’s usually beautifully impeccable hair now in complete disarray. This was an outrage! His magnificent creation, his Nishikikouji Masterpiece, destroyed… And all at the hands of Isa Souma!

...Well, alright, maybe it had been his own fault for not checking the power outage before demonstrating to the class - but how was _he_ supposed to know the laser would blow up in his face like that?

Clenching his fists at his sides, Tohri huffed as Shuu turned away to switch off the surely-ruined laser, more as a safety precaution over anything else. Tohri was certainly good at building the things, but how safe they were to have around and use - especially in a _school_ \- was debatable.

“What are you even doing here? You shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way of my classes!” Tohri demanded answers from the other, evidently getting himself into a fit as he stomped his feet and fumed loudly, the class watching with various levels of amusement. “I should report you to the headmaster!”

Mr. Nishikikouji was easy to rile up, everyone knew that. His rants could go on for hours if you weren’t careful what you said to his face, but the easiest way to ruffle his feathers was simply to put him and Dr. Iwamine in the same room. The two men couldn’t stand each other - or, at least, Tohri couldn’t stand Shuu and the doctor simply ignored his existence altogether. In a weird way, it almost bordered on friendship, or at least a mutual understanding of their strange relationship. They knew it was unconventional to hate each other, and yet… At least, this was what the students saw when they looked at the two members of staff.

Swinging his long body around from where he’d been getting increasingly riled up, Tohri pointed a finger at Shuu, the other bird returned his angry look with an air of complete apathy, obviously wishing for their encounter to be over and done with. “Isa Souma! I’ve half a mind to simply force you out right now!”

“The nose, Mr. Nishikikouji! Go for the nose!” Hiyoko yelled excitedly from her seat as Ryouta looked over at her worriedly, the girl obviously hopeful for some kind of universe in which the doctor would willingly agree to getting into a fistfight with Tohri. As it was he simply gave Hiyoko that same blank stare, his violet eyes cool and almost detached from the situation.

“You shouldn’t promote violence around school, Miss Tosaka. Who knows what sort of trouble you could get into, saying that sort of thing.” Was that a warning, or a threat? Hiyoko sunk down a little in her seat either way, the message received. Even a hunter-gather such as herself couldn’t help but be a little weary of the more frightening of the two infirmary doctors. It was something in the aura that Shuu gave off that pushed others away and made many students too scared to visit. Luckily the other doctor counterbalanced it, so there weren’t classes filled with ill or hurt students who refused to go to the infirmary because of Shuu. That would just be disastrous.

Shifting his weight from one leg to the other, Shuu pushed his glasses up his nose slightly with his index finger and focused his attention once more on Tohri, who was getting more annoyed by the minute. Really, now, all this fuss and all he’d done was walk into Tohri’s classroom. Reaching into his labcoat, Shuu paused momentarily at the intake of breath from the entire class, obviously expecting the doctor to pull out some kind of weapon - and then smirking at the collective sigh of relief (disappointment?) when it turned out to just be a stack of thin files. “You asked for these students medical records.”

“I recall no such thin-!” Tohri started, obviously still fuming - before pausing when he realised that ‘Oh, yes, I did do that, didn’t I?’ Still annoyed, the pheasant didn’t bother with being polite about how he took the files, snatching them out of Shuu’s hand with a huff and flicking through them momentarily before nodding. Yes, they were all here. Strange, it wasn’t like Shuu to be organised. Then again, he did always put more pride into his work than his home.

“Will that be all?” The doctor asked, his tone dull. Tohri waved him off, anger apparently sated. What a finicky man.

“Yes, yes. Give Dr. Kawara my regards.”

* * *

 

“Have a good evenin’, Nishikikouji!”

“You too, sir.” Tohri ducked his head to Kawara as the other left, the usual cheerful grin on the doctor’s face. Tohri always wondered how his former boss stayed so happy - if he had to say, Kawara’s smile had only grown after the three of them had left the Hawk labs.

In the end, it had been Kawara’s decision. He’d grown sick of the ethically immoral things he and his proteges were expected to do and so had walked out; Tohri and Souma following simply on the basis that they had nothing and nobody else keeping them there otherwise.

Tohri wondered what life might’ve been like if things had been a little different.

“Hey, Isa Souma! Are you coming or not? I’m not waiting here for you all night!” It was already late, Tohri was just thankful their apartment was so close. It was easier on Shuu’s right leg for them to live near the school, rather than somewhere inconvenient like on the other side of the city. However, it had it’s downsides - Shuu took the proximity as an excuse to stay late in school and return at the crack of dawn. If it weren’t for the fact that he needed to keep himself clean (and he wasn’t even very good at keeping to _that_ , either) Tohri doubted he’d ever come home.

“Yes, yes. Give me a minute.”

“You said that five minutes ago!” Tohri was not a bird well-known for his patience. He wasn’t about to wait around for Shuu to finish… Whatever it was he was doing this time; something boring and doctor-y no doubt.

Barging into the room, Tohri almost hit his head on the top of the infirmary doorway, Shuu glancing up from the papers on his desk with a dull look at the scene Tohri was making; spluttering and getting himself tangled in his own coat. _Really._

“Must you make the effort to annoy me every hour of every day?” Shuu asked, voice tinged with exhaustion at the other’s antics rather than irritation. Tohri huffed once he’d gotten things under control, ducking under the doorway with a vague glare at the inanimate object as if it had offended him personally - knowing Tohri, it probably had. “You know, I’m sure you wouldn’t struggle so much with doorways if you took off those heels and wore normal shoes from time to time.”

“I’m not the annoying one here! And these heels are Gucci!”

“I have absolutely no idea what that means, nor do I care. It looks like you dug those out of the trash.” _Ouch._ “Why do you feel the need to be even taller than you already are?” Tohri fixated his glare on the now-standing doctor, Shuu having gotten painfully to his feet while Tohri had been fighting the doorway.

Shuu was in no ways a small man; he easily towered over most of the students in school - but he was definitely one of the smallest members of staff, dwarfed by the likes of Uzune and Nanaki. Dr. Kawara was still taller than him, and Tohri was the tallest of them all.

Even without the heels, Shuu barely came up to Tohri’s chin and it was this height difference that allowed the pheasant to tower menacingly over Shuu - not that Shuu felt threatened by the other in any way. He was the complete opposite of frightening, unlike Shuu himself. Even so…

“Too close, Nishikikouji.” The other had backed him up against his own desk, Tohri’s gloved hands flat on the wooden surface either side of the doctor’s slim figure as he stared down at Shuu, golden eyes narrowed. Really, now… This was just inappropriate for a school setting. Though that didn’t stop Tohri from ducking down, pressing his lips to Shuu’s own chapped ones.

“Mn...Mm- Ugh.” Shuu made a face once Tohri let him go, lips left somewhat sticky from the lipstick the other had on. He wouldn’t have let Tohri kiss him if he’d known, but he hadn’t been able to tell because it hadn’t been red. Annoying. Bringing a hand up to his face so as to wipe away the residue with the back of it, Shuu gave a grumble of “That doesn’t answer my question,” his expression irritated and a little perplexed.

Rolling his eyes at Shuu’s complaints, Tohri dug into his bag for a wipe, handing it to the partridge with one hand on his own hip and a huff escaping his lips. “You don't have to make such a fuss, it’s just lipstick. And I like to be tall! I don’t _need_ a reason!”

“You live in a country where the average height is five foot seven. You are a whole foot above that. When you already struggle, why make things harder for yourself?” Anybody who didn’t know Shuu well wouldn’t have understood what he was trying to say - Tohri supposed it probably sounded like he was being criticised, but he knew that behind those words was a tinge of concern. Shuu _was_ a doctor and, although their relationship was in no way conventional, for all intent and purposes Tohri was his boyfriend. They’d both rather avoid Tohri having a permanent lump on his forehead from collision trauma.

“You worry too much, Souma.” Fourteen years of knowing one another and the younger had always been concerned for his and Dr. Kawara’s health. Shuu was more compassionate than his personality led people to believe - he scared people on purpose, though Tohri didn’t know why. Whatever the reason, it worked. Even Tohri couldn’t help but be a little intimidated sometimes; right now being a good example as Shuu sent him a very sharp glare, Tohri even stepping back a little bit in apprehension.

“It is my _job_ to worry, you fool. What kind of doctor would I be if I did not care for people?”

“A fairly shitty one, I’ll admit.” Tohri mumbled, eyeing Shuu and waiting for the other to finish faffing around with his lips before bending back down - and earning a wipe to the mouth for his trouble, spluttering at the taste. “Hey!”

“Your lipstick is disgusting. Get rid of it.”

“It’s _fashionable-_ ”

“It’s annoying. Wipe it off, or you can’t kiss me.” What cruel terms! They’d been through this song and dance before, but Tohri did always love to test Shuu’s limits, for whatever reason. Maybe he just liked giving the partridge a headache.

After a moment of glaring huffily at Shuu (like a _child_ ) Tohri eventually tugged the wipe from Shuu’s fingers and cleaned away the lipstick, Shuu watching while leaning back against his desk. Sparing a glance at the clock on the wall, Shuu made quick note of the time - It’d be ten at night, soon enough. He really did spend far too much time at school. Tohri gave Shuu a raised eyebrow once he was done, obviously unimpressed at the lengths he had to go just to show his boyfriend some affection from time to time. “Better?”

“Mm, much.” Shuu reached up to grab Tohri’s shirt collar and the pheasant was pleasantly surprised when he was tugged down, Shuu’s lips meeting his own a little roughly. Ah, so he’d decided he wanted the attention, after all.

“Make up… Your mind, Isa Souma…” The way Tohri’s gloved hands gripped near-desperately at the back of Shuu’s labcoat might’ve been a little too intimate for a school setting, perhaps, but who was there to see them? It was just them and the clock, ticking away as Tohri leant into the kiss, pushing at Shuu until he was nearly lying across his desk, one of Tohri’s hands having roamed to the doctor’s hip. That was too much for Shuu, kicking lightly at Tohri’s shin in an effort to get the other to let him go, which he did immediately upon noticing Shuu’s discomfort.

“Sorry,” Tohri panted, somewhat admirable of the flustered expression Shuu wore, the doctor’s cheeks flushed a soft pink. It almost suited him, what with the red-purple look Shuu had going on. “I got too into it, hm?”

“You always _do_ ,” Shuu snapped in return, trying to sit up a little - no doubt he was uncomfortable, lying down like that with only Tohri’s hand on his back to keep him up off the desk. Tohri let him up, stepping away in order to give the other some space. “Why can’t you limit yourself a little more?”

“Well, forgive me for being excited to give you some attention - with the amount of time you spend in here it’s almost like we aren’t even boyfriends!” Shuu’s face went on an emotive journey in response to that word, eventually just settling on ‘irritably embarrassed’. He didn’t like the label, Tohri knew, but he wanted to call Shuu _something_.

“We aren’t-”

“We aren’t? Are you _sure?_ " Shuu huffed but made no effort to reply, rubbing at his own face with the heel of his hand and all of a sudden looking completely _exhausted_. Tohri frowned, posture relaxing at the sight. Shuu was an idiot. An awkward, handsome _idiot_. “...Souma. You need some time off work. Let’s go home.” Shuu’s eyes flickered up to look at him from where they’d been focused on the floor, violet eyes betraying how uncharacteristically tired he was. He always seemed to overwork himself.

“...Fine.” No fight was put up, the usual argument was dropped - straightening his posture from where he’d been leaning against his desk, Shuu closed the distance between himself and Tohri with ease and, gripping at Tohri’s forearms, leant forward in an almost-hug, surprising the pheasant. Shuu was more affection-starved than Tohri had initially thought.

Curling his arms around the shorter bird, Tohri was content to just hold him like that, feeling a calm that was rare whenever he was around Shuu. He could only imagine the looks on the students faces if they saw the two of them like this… It would have been amusing, if the idea didn’t horrify Tohri to the core. He’d never live such embarrassment down…!

Eventually they separated, Shuu silent and averting his eyes as he gathered his things, Tohri waiting just as quietly by the door. They were never usually so placid around each other; it was almost strange. As they left, Shuu spoke, his hands in his labcoat pockets and Tohri rummaging through his bag for his phone.

“Your eyeshadow looks nice today.”

“...What?” Tohri looked up from his bag, surprise written across his face. Had Shuu just… Complimented him on his makeup? Unironically? Without laughing? Shuu returned Tohri’s confused look with his own blank one, obviously annoyed he was going to have to spell out what he meant to the other.

“It’s red. I noticed it. It looks nice.” See, that made more sense. Tohri gave a small, delighted huff to himself, flipping his long fringe out of his face if only for the sake of being happy. The action itself didn’t move the hair; it was designed to look the way it did. Shuu called it idiotic (“How can you see with it covering your eye like that?”) Tohri thought it fashionable. That did seem to be their usual aggravation - whether or not Tohri’s strange fascination with the arts was worth it. Apparently this time around, it had been.

“I’m glad! See, these are the things you miss when you spend all your time working.”

“...Are you annoyed at me for doing that?”

“I’m always annoyed at you, Isa Souma.”

“You know what I mean.” Tohri frowned, watching as Shuu went through the motions of locking up the school gate for the night, both of them bathed in pale moonlight. He was always trusted to do it, what with usually being the last one there and everything. The key was stored in his labcoat with everything else and that was that. He turned to Tohri afterwards, eyebrows raised - his question hung in the air, heavier than it had any right to be. Shuu’s questions were like that, unfortunately.

“Mnng…” Tohri sighed, folding his arms in thought and stomping one foot, more in a sign of frustrated thought than anything. Shuu was so smart yet so dense, it was impossible to get his point across normally… He either had to put it into words Shuu would understand, or be blunt to the point of cruel. “Alright, yes! It is annoying! I like being able to spend time with you!”

“You don’t act like it.” Shuu muttered in return, expression forcibly blank. Tohri flinched, certain they were both remembering that morning - and any other time they’d seen each other in school and weren’t alone for it.

“That isn’t-” Tohri frowned, reaching up to rub at the back of his own neck with a gloved hand, eyebrows drawn. “I thought we were on the same page about that. I assumed you enjoyed the dramatics.”

“It is hard to tell when you’re kidding around and when you aren’t, considering how you live your entire life like one large television drama.” Ouch. Fair enough, Tohri deserved that one. Shuu’s eyes stared at Tohri, cold and piercing, almost as if seeing through him rather than looking at him. It made Tohri shiver; he never liked that look - like Shuu was detached, separate from him.

“I…” He was going to have to say it, wasn’t he? Tohri grumbled, chewing on his lower lip in vague embarrassment at what he was about to do. Seriously, it wasn’t like he hadn’t told Shuu before, but the doctor’s chilly aura made him feel awkward about it. Oh, well. “You know I love you!” Surprise flickered across Shuu’s face, obviously having not expected that. He turned his face away, that same pink blush from earlier rising to his cheeks - Tohri could tell, even in the dead of night like this.

“That doesn’t- What does that tell me?”

“How blunt do I have to be?” Getting no reply in return Tohri sighed, reaching up to massage at the bridge of his nose before stepping towards the other, laying a gentle hand on Shuu’s shoulder. “I’m sorry if how I act made you believe I do not care for you. It’s… A little awkward for me to show it, Isa Souma. I spent a lot of time kidding myself that how I felt was detestment for you, rather than what it actually was.” Shuu shrugged, averting Tohri’s gaze in his embarrassment. Was he trying to get Tohri to let go? Removing his hand, the pheasant was surprised when Shuu made a quick grab for it, both of Shuu’s own hands holding onto Tohri’s tight.

“I understand. It is easier to pretend we dislike each other than be nice, correct? ...I love you too, you know.” Oh. _Oh._ Well then. Tohri felt his own face go hot beneath his make-up, mouth parting into an ‘o’ shape in his surprise.

“You never told me!” And just like that, he was back to his dramatics - yanking his hand from Shuu’s grip, Tohri stomped his feet, his face bright red. Shuu watched him freak out for a moment before sighing, putting his hands back into his pockets with a soft smirk. Yes, this was certainly easier. They’d find other times to be serious, ideally when they weren’t outside in the dead of night. “How am I supposed to _know_ if you don’t-?!”

“Nishikikouji. Can we go?” Tohri froze, body a strange sculpture of long flailing limbs before he eventually lowered them, expelling a long sigh to calm himself. It wasn’t worth getting worked up now. Shuu was giving him an expectant look, seeing him this time rather than through him, something Tohri much preferred - he _liked_ being seen. Huffing and fixing what he could of his outfit, Tohri curled an arm around Shuu’s own and started walking, the shorter bird struggling momentarily to keep up before Tohri thought to slow down.

The next day wasn’t any different, as far as the student body of St. Pigeonations could tell - Tohri was still loud and flashy and Shuu was still cold and low-energy - but that morning Tohri had woken with the other in his arms and Shuu had kissed him and they’d had breakfast together. They were far from perfect but they were, to an extent, happy. That was probably good enough for now.


End file.
